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GP d’Italia: After chaos race to take one point in second chance

Jonas Folger could bring home a single point in Sunday’s classic race in Italy at least but he expected a different outcome, mainly due to his strong showing in the morning’s warm up session.

Folger, who already started once from pole position and finished two time on the podium this season, experienced an Italian Grand Prix to forget. He wasn’t able to find his feeling with the bike and for the much loved track in these conditions in order to push to the maximum limits. Second fastest lap time during Sunday morning’s warm up session was just a single highlight. But during the race, starting from P17 down the order, Folger immediately had to realize that the entire package isn’t competitive. In addition, Folger endured a technical problem as the electronics didn’t work. At the same time as the 22-year-old from Bavarian entered the pits to retire, the race was red-flagged due to a crash in which one element of the airfence was destroyed so this gave him and his crew the chance to fix the problem and Folger was able to take his grid position again. But the re-start was somewhat of a chaotic scenery till the procedure was stopped again. Finally, the race was re-started for ten laps. But also during this sprint race Folger wasn’t able to find his form again. P15 on the line and a single point are definitely not a consolation for the outcome of that championship round to which Folger heads highly anticipated year by year.

“Mugello 2016 was definitely one of toughest weekends I ever experienced. I really didn’t expect this in this way. But honestly speaking I’ve to look at myself searching for the reason of all these issues. Throughout the weekend I wasn’t able to find confidence with the bike. I lacked feeling in order to push at its maximum. We were working so hard and tried so many different things as well I tried to remain calm and relaxed and tried to take the maximum out of the situation. But for all efforts of all involved people we couldn’t succeed. This morning’s warm up was just a short highlight, during this session the situation was just as normal. So for this understandable, I expected something for the race because the setting allowed me to feel more comfortable with the bike. But in the race the situation changed and it went disappointing again. In any case I just look for the reasons at myself. Finally, I was lucky because I already entered the pits due to an electronic issue but at the same time the race was red-flagged and I was eligible to enter the grid again. Unfortunate I wasn’t able to take this second chance to more. So I quickly must check-off round six of the series quickly and turn my focus on the future which starts on Monday with a one-day test at Mugello already. I really hope that this test will be successful, just to leave the Tuscany with a little feeling of success. It really hurts, that of all things this grand prix, which I count to my absolute favourites, ended like this.”